Here’s a wonderful method that will enable your students to write (and THINK!) about the mathematics they are learning. Ask them to write a short explanation of the main concept/skill covered in class that day and the results will be that they understand it better and will remember it longer!
Students can use a single piece of binder paper per week. The teacher will collect these EZ Writes once a week and grade them as an assignment. The students are asked to reread their weekly entries and select the one they feel is their best, and then place a STAR by that entry; this is the one that the teacher reads first and most carefully. Comments/corrections/suggestions can be made by the teacher and then the EZ Writes are returned to the student. These are saved by the student and become a source of study material and also a source of important concepts. Since these are written by the student, they are in the student’s own language and therefore communicate the information well.
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I like this a lot. However, I’d also add in a place where students could illustrate the concept as well. Students do benefit from putting the math in words, but if they can illustrate the concept, a teacher could then help them talk through it.
Hi MrTeach,
You’re exactly right. Many times I will ask students to create illustrations for an idea we’re talking about. Graphs, of course, are an obvious example, but also pictures of the Distributive Law, F.O.I.L. for factoring, geometric diagrams are a few others.
-Mr. L